Setup - Membership overview

This article covers summaries of

• How Arts People defines memberships 
• How memberships work
• Membership setup

What are memberships in Arts People?

• Donor Benefits
  Memberships allow you to give benefits to your donors such as discounts and early access to ticket sales. Memberships are based on a year-long active window for most types. During the active window, your patron receives their membership benefits. 
• Renewal
  When a membership gets close to expiring a renewal notice via email and/or postal mail can be sent to the member using the Database Batch processing area of your system to help them stay current.
• Levels
  Each membership type can be set up to have levels where a minimum donation amount will trigger a specific level of membership. Membership benefits can increase with each increase in membership level.

How do you set up memberships?

• Funds
  Before a membership is set up a fund is created that it's linked to. You can designate the fund for a specific fundraising project or have it be your General Fund that's used for operating expenses.
  • When a donation is made into the Membership fund it triggers a membership if the amount is at or above the minimum amount for the lowest membership level.
    • For example, if the lowest level for the membership I set up is granted with a $50 donation the donor will receive a membership when they donate that amount.
      • If the donor gives less than the minimum they won't receive a membership, but the system will track the amount they gave and add it subsequent amounts so that when they reach the minimum amount they'll receive a membership (if the donations are processed within the active window for the membership).
    • Donations are cumulative
      • Donations made during the active window for the membership are cumulative and increase the member's level.

• What kinds of memberships can I set up?
  There are three kinds of membership in Arts People -  each is called a membership type.
  • Based on the donation date
    • The most common membership type is Rolling.
      • This type is focused on the date the donor gives: their membership lasts one year from their donation date.
  • Based on the expiration date you set
    • The second most common membership type is Annual.
      • With annual memberships, you decide the start and the expiration date. For example, if you set January 1 as your start date and December 31 as your expiration date and a donor donates on December 1 their membership will only remain active for 30 days. Organizations often choose an Annual membership setup when they have an annual membership drive and want to encourage giving during a specific window of time.
  • Flexible active window
    • The least common option is referred to as Once.
      • This type can be set up to have whatever active window you'd like it to: short, long, or no expiration. The Once type is often used when you don't want the membership to expire, or if you have a campaign/fundraising project that's limited to a specific time and you only want benefits to last the length of the campaign.

• What to name the type?
  • "Individual membership" is a common name for a membership type. In this case, the membership is given to individual members of your patron community as opposed to Corporate/Business members.

• Can I have multiple membership types?
  You can, but it's usually not needed and can be confusing to patrons.
  • If you opt to have separate types it's most common to have just two: Individual membership (for individuals) and Business membership (for businesses/organizations).

Membership Levels

• Levels
  Levels allow you to give more membership benefits the more a patron donates.
  • For example, Quartz, $1000 minimum, Ruby $2000 minimum, Diamond, $3000 minimum, etc.

Here's a screenshot from an Arts People demo account. All three options described above for how membership types can be set up can be seen here:

For most, it's best to work with your client support rep on Membership setup as there are quite a number of pieces to consider! Submit a request to reach out to your rep to get the process started.

Read on here for detailed setup steps and more info on membership setup.

Thank you for reading!